Cyber Culture: Drawing lessons from the epic failure of OMGPOP
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.You might just remember the game Draw Something. Just over a year ago, everyone was playing it. Literally everyone. Well, not literally everyone, but lots of people. Companies were making a mint out of selling special styluses for our smartphones so we could doodle in greater detail. At the peak of its popularity, the company behind it, OMGPOP, were hauled out of near-bankruptcy by the games firm Zynga for $180m. People became rich. CBS bought the rights to a Draw Something game show.
But then, as quickly as it had peaked, it troughed. Half its daily users were lost in a month. At the moment when a Zynga spokesman described Draw Something as an "evergreen franchise" that will "live on for years," the world had realised that it wasn't very good. Briefly distracting, sure, but after a week or so it was deeply tedious.
A few weeks ago, Zynga released Draw Something 2, and in what some might say was an act of desperation they got Will.i.am to publicise it. It flopped. Shortly afterwards, OMGPOP was moth- balled in a cost-saving exercise.
We learn three things from this. a) OMGPOP never really had the magic touch; one of its games merely went accidentally viral. b) Zynga failed to notice point a). c) Don't ever believe the hype.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments